Christmas is in our hands

ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL Everyone could miss out this Christmas if even a tiny minority ignore the restrictions and refuse to follow the guidelines.

IT’S the last week of Level 5 restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic (we hope), and for those of us who felt a lump in our throats when we first saw this year’s SuperValu advertisement it is time to take stock.
It is time to listen to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet). Wash our hands. Keep a social distance. Wear a mask. We need the numbers of confirmed cases of coronavirus to be down to around 100 per day if we want to have some semblance of a Christmas. That is what the experts say. They know best and no matter how rocky the road has been since last March, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan and his team have steered a relatively stable ship – certainly in comparison to our nearest neighbours and to many other countries across the EU.
You don’t need to be a behavioural psychologist to know that a reprieve from the last nine months of the turmoil caused by this virus was never more needed. As the wind howls and winter weather closes in, the anticipation of twinkling lights in shop windows and on the streets of Co Mayo – from Belmullet to Balla, Louisburgh to Charlestown, Westport to Ballinrobe – is balm for the soul.
For now, the thought of Christmas is a very bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Of course, news by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that preliminary data from advanced trials of both of their vaccines shows 90 and 94.5 percent efficacy has put a little pep in all our steps over the last two weeks. As a number of other major vaccines come on stream there is increased hope that the pandemic will be under control by next summer.
Back here on home turf the Mayo team’s exciting win over arch-rivals Galway in a windswept Pearse Stadium in Salthill on Sunday, November 15, and the resilience of these gaelic football warriors, leaves us all daring to hope again.
But the ball is firmly in our court for the next week, in particular, if restrictions are to be eased enough for families and friends to gather from near and far for the festive season.
It will prove pointless for 90 or even 94.5 percent of us to adhere to all the Level 5 restrictions, if a tiny minority ignores them. As has been shown again and again over recent months, all you need is one super-spreader – even an asymptomatic one – to ignore the public health guidelines and this highly infectious virus dances a jig, does a hornpipe.
Let us recall early October when Dr Holohan returned suddenly to his job and convened an emergency meeting of Nphet. Remember the outrage when his suggestion was leaked to the media that it was necessary to move to Level 5. TΡnaiste Leo Varadkar went on to Claire Byrne Live the following night and excoriated such a draconian and abrupt decision. To be fair, he was only expressing a view that was widespread in government buildings.
Who was proven correct two weeks later? Nphet’s core principles have always been to balance the status of the disease against the protection of our most vulnerable citizens, the continued resumption of non-Covid health and social care services and the continuity of educational and childcare services.
Each one of us is not only affected by the success of these principles but each one of us can also ensure their outcome.
Just like in the SuperValu ad, each one of us knows a little boy or girl who is busy preparing for Santa Claus’s arrival and most importantly for a much-awaited visit from a Granny or a Grandad.
Christmas is very much still in our hands.